head to head · open source
hydra vs casdoor
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars, 1,609 forks, 98 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. casdoor has 14,434 stars, 1,818 forks, 97 open issues and last shipped yesterday. hydra leads on adoption by 22% (17,553 vs 14,434 stars). hydra is written in Go under Apache-2.0; casdoor is written in Go under Apache-2.0. hydra has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, casdoor 13%. casdoor was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (oauth), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| hydra | casdoor | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 18K | ★ 14K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Go | Go |
| Last push | 2026-07-29 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.6K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick hydra if
- You weight community size — 18K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick casdoor if
- You want the casdoor feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and casdoor fits your workflow better
About hydra
Ory Hydra is an OpenID Certified OpenID Connect and OAuth 2.1 provider written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, built for teams that need standards compliant token issuance, client management, and consent flows while user accounts stay in their own existing identity system.
read the full hydra overview →
About casdoor
Casdoor is an open source, self hosted identity and access management platform written in Go and licensed under Apache 2.0, which provides a single sign on and authentication server with a web console for teams that want to own their user directory rather than delegate it to a hosted provider.
read the full casdoor overview →
More in Security & Privacy
Related comparisons
More Identity & Access Management (IAM) projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Identity & Access Management (IAM) field.
Frequently asked questions
Is hydra or casdoor more popular?
hydra has 17,553 GitHub stars and casdoor has 14,434. hydra has the larger community by that measure.
Are hydra and casdoor free?
Both are open source. hydra is licensed under Apache-2.0 and casdoor under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between hydra and casdoor?
hydra is written in Go and casdoor in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, hydra or casdoor?
Choose hydra if you want the larger community (17,553 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose casdoor if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.